I’m a part of the Blank Generation, 'cause I can take it or leave it each time…
I feel more like a part of the Silent Generation, because I eat on the run so often. My life is a movable feast. Or does that mean I’m in the Lost Generation, because I can’t find a place to sit? Maybe I’m really in search of lost time.
Getting back on the topic…
Generations are indeed arbitrary. So are political parties. Neither concept can be an absolute predictor of anything except age, and then only if you define them down pretty tightly. Of course, if you define them down tightly as regards time, you lose definition as regards attitudes and perhaps even life experiences, and vice-versa. It seems there’s an inherent uncertainty here.
However, that doesn’t mean they’re completely worthless. Knowing when someone was born gives you conversation starters if nothing else. Plus, it gives everyone the freedom to define these things as they choose, with no definitions being inherently worse or better than any others.
So here are mine. I live in America. Other countries have different generations. Strauss and Howe might even be smart enough to realize that.
[ul]
[li]Boomers were born in the 1940s-1950s such that they either had a draft card or knew guys their age who did. As far as I’m concerned, being a Boomer is defined by being part of the last generation for which Selective Service Registration really and truly meant something, and I don’t mean eligibility for Federal student aid and loan programs. The draft ended in 1973, so the youngest Boomer was born in 1955.[/li][li]Generation X therefore doesn’t immediately follow the Baby Boomer generation. 1956 is too old to have grown up in a world defined by computers and the later Cold War. The Apple II, Commodore 64, and TRS-80 all came out in 1977. Twelve is the Age Of Wonder. Therefore, the earliest Xers were born in 1965, which is a nice, round number. They achieved something like political consciousness after Watergate and circa Ronald Reagan and The Day After. WarGames is, therefore, the Ultimate Xer Film.[/li][li]Generation Y is as much of a generation as anything, and directly follows Generation X because why not. According to information and belief, 1993 was Year Zero for the inflection point of the growth of the Web and, therefore, the Internet as we know it. Applying the same rule as above, the first Yers were born in 1981 which sounds about right: Even the oldest wouldn’t have had much direct experience with the Cold War, but they would all have grown up in a world where computers and even computer networks were increasingly passe and VCRs and cable TV existed, both of which reshaped how people approached old films and prior cultural artifacts in general. (Basically: We can buy and/or rent old stuff! We can have a longer cultural memory!) Cable was seen as the Boogeyman Of The Age, but VCRs would be a better predictor of the future, because…[/li][li]Millennials are currently defined by not remembering 9/11 but they will be defined by not remembering television. The medium, not the band. They have a better chance of being interested in the band, frankly: The defining feature of their cultural lives will be No Schedules. Appointment media will always be as weird to them as it’s becoming to me, now, in my thirties. This Terrible New Cultural Degeneration will be marked by a reversion to how recorded media was consumed at pretty much every point from the invention of the modern printing press to the invention of radio which could carry sounds beyond Morse code. Isn’t it horrible to be able to get what you want when you want it, as opposed to being taught to patiently wait for the local media company to give it to you on their schedule? Anyway, permanent memories don’t form much before age three, so the oldest Millennials were born in 1998.[/li][/ul]